I am told that the top and bottom limit in the United States is $100. No need to offer more; don't bother offering less. The delicate issue, of course, is how it's proffered. Best defense: Let it fall "absentmindedly" to the ground as you pull out your driver's license (don't look at the money). You haven't offered anything; it's the cop's choice to pick it up after you leave. But as with any bribe, you could lose your $100, get nailed for the ticket and wind up in county jail.

While many GPS systems don't log travel details extensively enough to be used as a defense against a moving violation, Malone's car was outfitted with a device that could do just that. According to [stepfather Roger] Rude, all recorded plots on Malone's route show him to be driving under the speed limit. At the same time, Rude says, GPS-systems are clearly more reliable than radar systems, which, while good, are "not an infallible tool" and are subject to human error.

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Friday, October 26, 2007

Climate change models, no matter how powerful, can never give a precise prediction of how greenhouse gases will warm the Earth, according to a new study.

The result will provide ammunition to those who argue not enough is known about global warming to warrant taking action.

...What is more, they found that better computer models or observational data will not do much to reduce that uncertainty. A better estimate of sensitivity is the holy grail of climate research, but it is time to "call off the quest", according to a commentary published alongside the paper.

Which raises the question as to why major policy decisions are being advocated based on inherently unreliable models.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Counterfactual sports t-shirts: Immediately after a major sports championship such as a Super Bowl, the winners get pre-made t-shirts proclaiming their victory. But what happens to t-shirts that were made in case the other team had won? They get sent to Africa. It sure would be a cool collectors' item to have all 4 of the "Buffalo Bills Super Bowl Champion" counterfactual t-shirts for 1991-1994.

Software geek-entrepreneur Francisco Gutierrez posts his Annual Rant On Taxes. I completely agree with his criticisms of the current system. (Disclamer: I haven't studied the various "fair tax" proposals in detail, so I don't necessarily endorse that particular solution.)

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Friday, October 19, 2007

Chris Pine (Just My Luck) will play a young Captain James T. Kirk and Karl Urban (Lord of the Rings) has been cast as Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy in J.J. Abrams' upcoming Star Trek movie for Paramount. ...Just last week, Abrams cast John Cho (Harold and Kumar) as Sulu, Simon Pegg (Hot Fuzz) as Scotty, and Eric Bana (Hulk) as the villain Nero. Also on board are Zoe Saldana (Guess Who, Drumline) as the young Uhura, Anton Yelchin (Hearts in Atlantic) as the young Chekov, and Zachary Quinto (Heroes) as the young Spock. Original Spock Leonard Nimoy will also appear in the movie. Little is known about the plot other than it will probably chronicle the Enterprise crew's early days at the Starfleet Academy.

Fox is set to premiere its new series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles on Monday, Jan. 14 at 8 p.m. and will air the show Monday nights alongside 24. The show stars Lena Headey (Aberdeen, 300) as Sarah Connor, who, along with her son John (Thomas Dekker), battle attackers from the future.

"The Blow Up": Interesting story (Part 1 and Part 2) about the Wall Street "quants" and the summer 2007 financial crisis. It looks like many in the industry still don't sufficiently take into account the "Black Swans" described by Nassim Taleb.

The weapon in question is the Storm botnet. This is the largest botnet ever seen, and it is acting like something out of a science fiction story. The Storm network is now believed capable to shutting down any military or commercial site on the planet. Or, Storm could cripple hundreds of related sites temporarily. Or, Storm could do some major damage in ways that have not yet been experienced. There's never been anything quite like Storm...

Note: It was not the intention of this experiment to make any particular group look bad, reinforce stereotypes nor to further a hidden agenda of any kind. The actions of a few members in a group should not, of course, be used to judge the whole group.

For those who care, it is technically a crime to fail to return a lost wallet in Illinois, where the test was performed (720 ILCS 5/16-2 "Theft of Lost or Mislaid Property".) This may or may not be widely known amongst the general population however.

Monday, October 08, 2007

Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded -- here and there, now and then -- are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.

...[Attorney Richard] Gabriel asked if it was wrong for consumers to make copies of music which they have purchased, even just one copy. Pariser replied, "When an individual makes a copy of a song for himself, I suppose we can say he stole a song." Making "a copy" of a purchased song is just "a nice way of saying 'steals just one copy'," she said.

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

The world's first true invisibility cloak -- a device able to hide an object in the visible spectrum -- has been created by physicists in the US. But don't expect it to compete with stage magic tricks. So far it only works in two dimensions and on a tiny scale.

The new cloak, which is just 10 micrometres in diameter, guides rays of light around an object inside and releases them on the other side. The light waves appear to have moved in a straight line, so the cloak -- and any object inside -- appear invisible.

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

The rise of DNA evidence to exonerate wrongly convicted suspects has led several states to change their rules of evidence, including DNA evidence, eyewitness testimony, "double-blind" lineups and how testimony from criminal informants is handled.

Motorola's DynaTAC (Dynamic Adaptive Total Area Coverage) 8000X was the world's first commercially released mobile phone -- making its debut in 1983 at the price of $3,995.

...The company spent over $100-million and 15 years developing the technology. At 13 x 1.75 x 3.5 in., the DynaTAC 8000X featured an LED display and up to 30-minutes of talk time when fully charged. It was available in three different color combinations, which included tan/gray, tan, and dark gray.